From the introduction:
It should come as no shock in this, our fourth volume detailing the most important and groundbreaking combat units of the Age of War, that we are also detailing brief slices of Humanity’s history. And, of course, in the process , we find ourselves both shedding light on a well-known—yet poorly understood—era, as well as uncovering new details that may well debunk “facts” we all thought to be true.
In this volume, we cover a couple of the most iconic BattleMechs ever to see the light of day — the Griffin and the Rifleman — though these first incarnations are quite different than the models that we all know from the Succession Wars and beyond. We also finally present hard facts on the Swordsman—a ’Mech you likely know nothing about, but which played roles in two very important conflicts. There’s also the Toro, the Taurian Concordat’s first BattleMech, and the Xanthos, the first (failed) quad-legged BattleMech, and likewise the first (failed) model of the famous Emperor.
Similarly, we have collected information on a wide variety of other battlefield units. The Chi-Ha, which played a key role in the formative years of the Draconis Combine, the Cobra VTOL, which played a similar role in the early days of the Terran Hegemony, and the Sturmblitz, which not only introduced the Human Sphere to the class-20 autocannon but also helped stabilize the Lyran Commonwealth. We also present the Hammerhead, one of the Hegemony’s first aerospace fighters, as well as the Mustang and the Intrepid, both key designs fielded by the Federated Suns. And finally, there’s the DroST IIb, a dedicated carrier ship and sister design of the DroST IIa-class DropShip we presented in our history of the Reunification War.
Our work is, of course, far from complete. The Age of War remains an era rife for the plumbing, and we will continue doing so, in the process bringing a better understanding of our history and of us. After all, this is who we are.
— Dr. Saga Brest, 29 December 3079